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| Briefing on the Hyde and Helms Amendments in Washington, D.C. |
| Ipas |
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On May 25, Ipas, the National Network of Abortion Funds and Black Women for Reproductive Justice, in cooperation with Reps. Louise Slaughter, Jan Schakowsky, Barbara Lee, Lois Capps and Yvette Clark, came together to address how U.S. domestic and foreign policies affect women’s reproductive health. Hundreds attended the briefing, including nearly 20 representatives from Congressional offices.
Millions of women benefit from U.S.-funded programs that improve maternal health, yet the Hyde and Helms Amendments harm women, particularly low-income women and women of color. The Hyde Amendment, passed in 1976, forbids federal funding for abortion except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the woman. The Helms Amendment, passed in 1973, prohibits the use of U.S. funds for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions. The legislation has been so strictly interpreted that information and counseling on abortion, even where legally permitted, is banned in U.S.-funded facilities.
“[The Helms Amendment] has effectively been applied as a total ban on speech and services for safe abortion and on any activity that might enable a health worker to know what to do or to have the means to help when a woman presents with an unwanted pregnancy,” said Barbara Crane, executive vice president for Ipas, sharing how the policy affects women in the developing world. Ann Starrs, president of Family Care International, said, “It’s important to look at [abortion care, family planning and maternal health] from the perspective of women. [They are all] part of a continuum of reproductive health care.”
In fact, the United States is the largest single donor for family planning, which is, of course, a way of preventing abortion, and a huge supporter of postabortion care programs. But, said Crane, “waiting until a woman is bleeding and unconscious to step in and save her life is a poor substitute for good quality, supportive care she really needs.”
Crane shared the story of Meena*, a 23-year-old woman with two children in Nepal, where abortion is legally permitted. Meena went to a local health clinic in the remote Kailali District with an unwanted pregnancy. Because the facility was U.S.-funded, the nurse there couldn’t help Meena with a safe abortion and referred her to a hospital 60 miles away—too far for her to travel on foot or ox cart. So Meena tried to self-induce with sticks. She went back to the clinic two weeks later with a severe infection and was given emergency treatment— considered postabortion care, which is funded by the United States.
The Hyde Amendment functions in much the same way as Helms does in restricting access to abortion care, though for U.S. women.
Toni Bond Leonard, president of the board of directors of the National Network of Abortion Funds and president and CEO of Black Women for Reproductive Justice shared her story: She was pregnant at age 12. Her mother, who was unable to work and collected welfare, realized that if her daughter carried the pregnancy to term, she’d essentially be raising another child. “And she wanted better for me,” said Toni.
So the light bill and the rent went unpaid and they didn’t have enough food—all so Toni could get an abortion. “Hyde set off a life-changing course of events for me and my family, which could have been prevented with public funding,” she said. “Hyde punishes women for being poor.”
“Women and families are at the heart of Hyde and Helms. A woman’s ability to control her fertility is absolutely fundamental,” said moderator Stephanie Poggi, executive director of the National Network of Abortion Funds. “But millions of women have lost that ability.”
For more information, contact media@ipas.org